Reclining At Table
The New Testament several times mentions reclining at table, a practice foreign to modern westerners. In the ancient near east, people would commonly lie down to eat. The details of the dining arrangement can be helpful when reading Bible passages where it is mentioned.
The Ancient Table
The ancient near east table was set between what we might call couches. Persons eating at the table would lie on their side with their head at the table and their feet away from the table, perhaps even dangling off the edge of the couch. Commonly, three couches formed a U-shape around the table, leaving one side of the table open for servers to bring food. A couch might have 3-4 occupants, so 12 persons filled the space up. Typically, people lay on their left side, propping up their head and freeing up the right hand for eating.
The table typically observed a social order, as well. The highest place on a couch was the one where the back was turned to no one, i.e., the farthest left. In more formal cases, the couches themselves observed an ordering by social status, where the guests of high rank would be placed in the center couch, and the other two might seat the hosts or servants.
A Pharisee's Welcome
Understanding the ancient dining arrangement makes it easy to see how the woman in Luke 7 was able to wash Jesus's feet while He was eating. She would have walked around the couches as servants would, and His feet were in easy reach without interrupting the conversation at the table.
Luke 7:36-38One of the Pharisees asked him to eat with him, and he went into the Pharisee's house and reclined at table. And behold, a woman of the city, who was a sinner, when she learned that he was reclining at table in the Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster flask of ointment, and standing behind him at his feet, weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head and kissed his feet and anointed them with the ointment.
And if Jesus was the guest of honor, He sat first on the middle couch (lectus medius 1 from the first picture above), allowing her to be seen by all in attendance as she performs this tender service.
The Last Supper
However, understanding the ancient dining arrangement sheds the most light on an incident at the last supper.
John 13:21-26Jesus was troubled in his spirit, and testified, "Truly, truly, I say to you, one of you will betray me." The disciples looked at one another, uncertain of whom he spoke. One of his disciples, whom Jesus loved, was reclining at table at Jesus' side, so Simon Peter motioned to him to ask Jesus of whom he was speaking. So that disciple, leaning back against Jesus, said to him, "Lord, who is it?" Jesus answered, "It is he to whom I will give this morsel of bread when I have dipped it." So when he had dipped the morsel, he gave it to Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot.
First, when we read, "one of his disciples, whom Jesus loved," we must understand this indicates the disciple is a personal friend of Jesus. So, when we read, "reclining at table at Jesus' side," we can understand a friend would be "seated" next to Him on the couch (actually, lying down on his side next to Him).
Then, when we read, "that disciple, leaning back against Jesus, said to him, 'Lord, who is it?'," we understand this, too. Since Jesus is lying on His left side in place 1, and His friend is also on his left side but in place 2, his friend has his back turned to Jesus's face. The friend necessarily has to lean back and turn his head to address Jesus directly.
Finally, Judas was within arm's reach of Jesus, placing him on the third couch with the lowly servants. If we think of him as the treasurer (as the other disciples did) he would sit on the servants' couch appropriately:
John 13:28-30Now no one at the table knew why [Jesus] said this to [Judas]. Some thought that, because Judas had the moneybag, Jesus was telling him, "Buy what we need for the feast," or that he should give something to the poor. So, after receiving the morsel of bread, he immediately went out.